The Unofficial Blogger of the Chicago Cubs in Canada

Cubs are “Lovable Losers” No More

Addison Russell could go down in MLB and Chicago Cubs history as one of those unsung players that do a lot special things and not get recognized for their work. They won’t get mentioned in the same breath as an Andrew McCutchen or Mike Trout but in the Cubs’ 5-4 victory over the San Francisco Giants, “Addy” came through in the clutch and helped the Cubs to victory. He hit a single. The Cubs won.

“I’m very happy the Cubs gave me the opportunity to play in this organization,” Russell said Wednesday night. “I wanted to take full advantage of it.”

I’m mentioning Addison Russell because it’s ironic that we had our last beer league softball game of the season and guess who hit a walk off single? Yeah, yours truly. Last night, the same night as Addison Russell’s big hit.

The Cubs lead off September with a win. It’s the last regular season month and the Cubs are positioned well in the schedule. They have a fairly easy schedule with the exception of the St. Louis Cardinals from the 12-14.

“We’re a good team,” Jason Heyward said of the Cubs. “I said it in the offseason and earlier this year, when you have a team with this majority of young guys and they go into the playoffs and get experience — any experience is good experience. They’ve shown to themselves and shown to everybody what they can do. I’m not surprised, by any means. It’s fun for me to add to it and feed off them and let them feed off me.”

The team has to calm things down a bit and get focused for the playoffs. Heyward’s right though, last year’s playoffs was huge for this team. Hey, if they get knocked out of the playoffs this season, yeah, it’ll be disappointing and perhaps a little bit of a heartache here and there, but we can look back on the season and think about the fun ride.

Who am I kidding? The Cubs should and need to win the World Series. If not, there’ll be some personnel changes and huge questions going forth.

“It’s definitely one game at a time, but it’s starting to enter our minds of how many games do we have to win to clinch,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We have to stay focused and keep playing.”

The Cubs magic number is 15. It could have easily been from April because they were so dominant from the start and never looked back. Let me ask you this,

Are the expectations too high this season or have the Cubs elevated themselves to elite status.